


Count in Red, Baron in Black

by attackstance



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Demons, M/M, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 08:05:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11642397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/attackstance/pseuds/attackstance
Summary: Taeyong and Yuta's castle has been empty for far too long.





	Count in Red, Baron in Black

Yuta isn’t content and Taeyong can’t rest.

The only way Taeyong can sense Yuta’s emotions is through the taste of his unique aura, cooling ash and stagnant wind now replacing the usually robust flavor of a burning flame. Yuta’s eyes are pitch black, his face is concealed with blood-red reptilian scales, his fangs and curved horns are sharp enough to tear clean through the center of the planet. There’s no place for pleasure or pain to show on the face of such a mighty demon, so Taeyong must find it.

Their castle is leagues underground where Yuta can feel the sweltering heat of the Earth’s core – Taeyong’s flesh is incapable of feeling, he’s unaffected at any temperature. Yuta spends much of his time in the practice hall, honing his trident against the hordes of soulless marionettes Taeyong conjures for him to slay. Taeyong is hovering in the corner, arms and legs folded beneath his black robes, careful violet eyes on his beloved.

It’s a simple task to discern the emotions of humans and lesser demons. Their hearts are always foolishly bared and begging to be manipulated, easily studied and dissected until they’re second nature.

In the eons they’ve been together, Taeyong has tasted two changes in Yuta’s aura. When he lays siege to entire nations with devastating gusts of wind from his draconic wings or subjugates lesser demons at the prongs of his trident, the coppery flavor of blood fills Taeyong’s mouth to the brim. When they share their bed and roll around in unsubdued passion, a wildfire roars in Taeyong’s mouth until soot shoots out of his nostrils.

What he tastes now is foreign, and the listless way Yuta crushes the skulls of the marionettes to dust leaves him baffled. Their communication dwindles because of it; Yuta isn’t upset with him but Taeyong can’t bear the ashen taste on his tongue all the same. It torments them for years and only worsens with time, taking a turn on Taeyong’s mood as well.

The answer lies in an unassuming forest on the surface. There’s a potent explosion of spiritual energy that reaches far into the depths of the earth, holding onto Taeyong’s attention the moment it bursts. He’s more adept at sensing concentrations of spirit energy than Yuta and knows, even from far away, that a powerful being has been born.

Yuta follows him to the surface to find the disturbance under the guise of protecting him – he’d never admit to succumbing to curiosity, too human a trait. Taeyong smiles to himself as they weave through the trees in the early morning, animals shrieking and fleeing from Yuta’s steps quaking the ground.

The source of the incredibly energy is near the edge of the forest, Yuta spots it and Taeyong floats behind him. There’s a battered corpse lying in the dirt, drying blood soaking the ground around it, and Yuta crouches to inspect. It’s a small body, not much larger than a child with tattered clothing made of rough fabric. Its flesh is littered in purple and red bruises from being bludgeoned, the left elbow broken and wrenched backward, the skull split open with chunks of gray matter spread along the ground. The spine is warped at its back and there are deep slashes and searing burns along its neck.

“Can you see his past?” Yuta requests. Taeyong is surprised Yuta knows the corpse is male despite the damage. He nods and places two of his finger to the corpse’s temple, hoping the memories aren’t among the dislodged bits of brain.

In an instant, the young boy’s memories are his. He sees the shadows of the trees as the boy races through the forests, breaths ragged and pained, bare feet aching and bleeding from the rocks and debris on the ground scraping into them. He sees the young boy’s ankle, twisted from tripping over a tree root, moments before torchlights shine in the distance. He sees the contemptuous faces of villagers as they bear down on the young boy, cursing at him and spitting on him, fists and feet crushing into his face and shattering the bones in his arms and legs, torch fires setting his clothes ablaze before a final hunting dagger plunging into his neck cuts the memories to black.

One scornfully chanted word echoes still after the vision fades.

_Monster._

Taeyong shares this with Yuta as he relives it. “Is that what makes his soul so strong? Resentment?” Yuta suggest as he circles the area, gathering the wispy scattered fragments of the young boy’s soul in his wings. Were they to leave such a strong soul to wander free, the forest would undoubtedly become cursed and uninhabitable for mortal creatures. Yuta doesn’t like bringing harm to animals.

“He harbors no resentment. It’s strange.” From what Taeyong saw, the young boy possessed a paltry amount of power when he was alive – a rarity in humans – but his deep-rooted regrets cultivated an intense burst of spiritual energy on his death, tethering his broken soul to the living realm. “I think he’s just lonely.”

As Yuta finishes collecting the fragments, the untamed pressure of young boy’s soul bears down on them both. Yuta grunts from the exertion of keeping the fragments in his wings. Taeyong’s estimation earlier was incorrect; the young boy is much stronger than either of them alone.

“What do we do with him?” Yuta asks him when they stand on either of the corpse. That Yuta questions their next action at all is a sign to Taeyong. Restless souls like this young boy become deadly curses or bestial demons. Taeyong traps them within his marionette husks, letting the dolls take the appearance of the soul before he locks the nuisances away for eternity. It’s a pattern as old as necromancy itself

This time is different and both of them sense it. Rather than using one of his empty dolls to absorb the young boy’s soul, Taeyong pulls a control bar with loose strings from his robes and guides his bone-thin hand toward Yuta’s wings. The strings call out to the young boy’s soul, the wisps of aether circling the strings adoringly and adhering to them. When the soul is fully gathered, Taeyong lowers the strings to the decaying corpse on the ground, guiding the heavy flow of aether to the corpse.

The string and the control bar disintegrate when the ritual is complete and the corpse is bathed in violet flames, the same shade as Taeyong’s irises. Yuta is always attentive to Taeyong’s works of necromancy, eyes unblinking on the corpse until the flames vanish.

Silence passes uninterrupted while they wait. The bruises to the corpse’s flesh are gone, as are the scrapes and burns and gashes, its skin now a hauntingly flawless pale blue. Its bones are healed and its brain is fully intact inside its sewn skull. The only evidence of its slaughter remaining are the ragged clothes and the blood still staining its body and the ground.

Soon, the young boy’s eyes flutter open from his deep slumber, his body a corpse no longer. He sits up, lungs breathing though they have no need for air, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He scans the forest around him, then he looks up to Taeyong and Yuta. There’s no fear, only confusion.

“Wh…who are you?” He asks in a quivering voice.

Taeyong crouches next to the young boy and uses the sleeve of his robe to clean some of the blood and grime from the young boy’s face. “My name is Taeyong, and my friend here is Yuta.” Taeyong smiles, pleased to discover the young boy doesn’t shy away from the skull tattooed on his face or his depthless eyes. “What’s your name?”

Taeyong glances at Yuta, cuing him to hesitantly crouch as well. Yuta still hasn’t said a word, but his interest in the young boy is apparent. He makes the effort to fold his large wings behind his back and hide his teeth behind his lips.

The young boy looks at them, first Taeyong then Yuta. “Um…Sicheng.”

“Sicheng. It’s very nice to meet you.” Taeyong offers his hand for Sicheng to shake and Sicheng slowly takes it. Yuta follows suit, careful not to let Sicheng grasp his razor claws, and Sicheng curiously scratches the diamond-hard scales on the back of Yuta’s hand.

“Snake.” Sicheng says simply. Yuta huffs, smoke puffing out of his nostrils. It doesn’t show on his face, but Taeyong knows Yuta is endeared. Other beings have remarked less and been burnt to cinders for daring to mock him.

“Are you feeling well?” Taeyong asks, waiting for Sicheng to nod before he continues. “Can you tell Yuta and I why those people hurt you?”

It somehow discomforts Taeyong to remind Sicheng of the past. Sicheng’s face crumples, tears welling up in his eyes and spilling down his cheeks. “I-I…I wanted t-to make a friend,” he stutters beneath sniffles and hiccups. “They n-never let play out…outside and…and if I t-try to make friend, the big…big people hit m-me and –“

“That’s good, that’s good. Thank you for telling me, big guy.” Taeyong again uses his robe to dry the mess from Sicheng’s face, though the crying barely subsides. “Do you know where your parents are? Mom and dad?”

Sicheng thinks for a moment then shakes his head. His fingers are anxiously pulling at a rip in his clothes. “I dunno. The mean people…they said…they said I made mom and dad go away…”

Taeyong meets eyes with Yuta and isn’t surprised to find his beloved is in agreement. A human with Sicheng’s power could have easily killed his own parents without trying, but there’s no need for Sicheng to ever know that. Not when there’s a more deserving party to blame.

“It wasn’t you, kid,” Yuta finally speaks, drawing Sicheng’s wide eyes to him. “Those mean people? They lied to you.”

“They…they did?”

Yuta nods in answer. “They didn’t like it when you smiled, so they did all that stuff to keep you from smiling. Been a while, hasn’t it?” Sicheng seems to accept Yuta’s reasoning, nodding with a thoughtful twist of his mouth. “Tell you what, how ‘bout you make a deal with us? Er, a promise.”

“A…promise?” Sicheng repeats. The word sounds foreign on his tongue.

“Yeah, a promise. I’ll get rid of the mean people who hurt you, and you have to promise to smile anytime you want, as much as you want. Deal?”

Yuta extends his hand once more but Sicheng is reluctant to shake it. He twists his little fingers, still apprehensive of voicing his desires. “Will I…will I make friends then?”

It’s an oversight on Taeyong’s part; he should’ve focused on satisfying what Sicheng’s soul thirsts most for. “Absolutely,” he replies, running his spindly fingers through Sicheng’s hair and combing out the blood-crusted tangles. “I’ll make you as many friends as you like. If there’s anything you ever, _ever_ want, you’ll always have Yuta and I.”

For the first time, Sicheng’s face widens with a brilliant smile and he shakes Yuta’s hand vigorously. “M’kay! Promise!” Taeyong can taste the joy in Sicheng’s aura, the clean and sweet tingles to his tongue. He never wants to taste anything different around him.

Yuta’s aura has changed as well, but Taeyong doesn’t need to decipher what his beloved is feeling when he feels the same. They’ve found what they were looking for.

“Come on, then.” Taeyong offers his hand to Sicheng as well. He and Yuta stand and lift Sicheng to his feet along with them, starting the walk toward the village. The twigs and rocks under Sicheng’s bare feet no longer bother him. “You’ll get to see Yuta have a little fun. He’s very strong, you see.”

Sicheng gazes up at Yuta’s tall form, astonished. “He can beat up everybody?”

Yuta looks down and bares his fangs playfully. “Watch me.”

At the outskirts of the village, Taeyong holds Sicheng’s hand and they watch Yuta release his pure form, his humanoid body twisting and growing into an immense dragon covered in blood red scales. He towers high over the trees and the roofs of the village. Taeyong doesn’t reach even the height of Yuta’s hindclaw. Sicheng’s hand squeezes Taeyong’s until Taeyong relaxes him with soothing strokes of his thumb. Sicheng has to learn neither of them would ever hurt him, no matter what shape they take.

Yuta forgives none as he rampages through the village to the melody of the villagers’ shrieks. “The count! The count!” they panic as Yuta’s sweeping tail destroys their homes. The men fight with primitive weaponry before they’re crushed beneath Yuta’s mighty claws, only indiscernible spatters of blood and flesh left in their wake. The women beg for mercy as Yuta’s maw snaps shut around their bodies, teeth rending them and sending severed limbs showering over the village. The children’s cries for their dismembered parents are silenced by the searing heat of Yuta’s breath, radiant blue flames charring everything they lick. Only scorched earth remains when he’s finished.

Sicheng watches the beautiful carnage in awe, amazed at Yuta’s strength. Taeyong smiles down at him, knowing in time, Sicheng will be able to do much worse with his power. Taeyong will trap the souls of the slaughtered village children and make them into friends for Sicheng now, then he’ll train Sicheng to make friends of his own.

When his end of the promise is finished, Yuta veils his pure form and retrieves his trident from Taeyong, running one loving blood-drenched claw along the outline of the skull on Taeyong’s face before he retakes Sicheng’s hand.  Taeyong pulls a few empty dolls from his robe, calling to the souls of the children to fill the dolls. He makes three friends for Sicheng and swears to let Sicheng play with them back at the castle.

Sicheng happily squeezes both their hands in his and the three of them are complete.

 

–––

 

It doesn’t take long for Jaehyun to get fed up with his parent’s excuses. They don’t seem to care that he’s lost his dog – his _best_ friend – enough to call the police, and when he tries looking around town, they give him weary sighs and beg him to give up.

Only a week has passed since Jaehyun last saw Koko. He’s put up flyers, asked everyone he knows stay on the lookout, and he’s searched through every alleyway and bush in a mile radius. The only place nearby he hasn’t checked is the forest outside the town gates. His parents have forbidden him time and time again to stay away and he’s always heeded their warning, but if they refuse to listen to him then he won’t listen them either.

He sneaks out at night, a leash and a bag of dog treats in the pocket of his hoodie. The town gates are always closed, but Jaehyun is a good climber and scales the gate easily, his feet stinging when he lands in the dirt.

“Koko!” he calls with the light of his cell phone flashing through the trees. The shadows stretch around him menacingly, but so far all he’s seen are scampering deer and owls hooting in caution to him. “Koko?!”

Jaehyun doesn’t know how deep into the forest he travels, but when he no longer sees the streetlights behind him, he realizes he isn’t alone in the forest.

His cell phone light illuminates the form of another person in the center of a clearing and he jumps in fright, nearly dropping his phone. A second look shows him the form of a boy who looks to be around his age. His dark hair is elegantly styled and his clothes appear outdated; a white shirt that’s ruffled around the collar with a string of velvet tied around the neck, a deep blue jacket and shorts that don’t reach his knees. It’s far too chilly out for such a strange outfit.

The boy doesn’t seem concerned with Jaehyun’s presence, wandering around and kicking his polished Mary Jane shoes through the grass. “H-hello?” Jaehyun greets and approaches him slowly. The other boy meets his eyes and smiles. His skin seems to glow under the light of Jaehyun’s cell phone. “Excuse me, have you seen a dog around here recently?

“…a dog?” The boy taps his finger to his chin in thought. “Is it fluffy and brown? Does it have white paws?”

Jaehyun perks up at the spot-on description of Koko. “Yeah! Yes! Her name’s Koko. You’ve seen her? Where did she go?”

“Hm, I’ve seen her. I tried to catch her, but she ran away. She’s very adorable,” the boy compliments and giggles, a piercing sound in the dead of night. The owls don’t seem as talkative as they once were. “I wanted to keep her as my own, you see. My uncles never let me have one.”

An uncomfortable chill runs down Jaehyun’s spine and he burrows deeper into his sweater. He doesn’t like hearing the possessive tone in the boy’s voice. “Yeah, sorry, she’s mine. Um, could you just…point me out to where you saw her run?”

The boy hums a tune and clasps his hands behind his back, shifting his weight from one knee to the other leisurely. “I don’t remember. She’s fast. What a lovely dog she is.”

Jaehyun sighs heavily, wondering if he’ll get home before sunrise. He’s happy to know Koko is around, but the forest is a huge area to tackle on his own. “Oh, all right. Well, thanks for your –“

“I could help you look.”

The offer startles Jaehyun – the strange boy doesn’t seem too concerned with helping him – but Jaehyun is grateful. “Really? That’d be awesome!”

“Well, you and I are friends, aren’t we?” the boy asks with unwavering focus on Jaehyun’s eyes. Jaehyun nods without hesitation. Anyone willing to help him find Koko is a friend of his. The boy grins brightly. “Then I’m happy to help you.”

“Great! We can start from –“

Jaehyun tries to walk away, but the boy’s hand snags on his wrist. The boy’s skin is cold like ice and Jaehyun tries to pull away, but the bruising grip around his wrist doesn’t budge. “Wh-what’re you doing?”

“There’s just one thing.”

The boy speaks calmly despite Jaehyun’s frantic attempts to escape his grasp. Jaehyun sees his panicked reflection in the boy’s glassy eyes. He sees himself drowning in emptiness. “You see, all of my friends are dead and you’ll need to join them.

“So…won’t you please die for me?”

**Author's Note:**

> Taeyong, Yuta and Winwin are based off of [Nebiros](https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/e/e9/547_-_Nebiros.jpg), [Belial](https://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/e/e9/Belial.jpg) and [Alice](https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/5/5f/Alice-0.png) respectively, three demons of the _Shin Megami Tensei_ franchise who form an interesting family.


End file.
